Ralliers Implore House Members To 'Do Your Jobs'

Pennsylvania has had an unbalanced budget for nearly a month, and advocacy groups around the commonwealth say they have real concerns Governor Tom Wolf will soon have to start freezing spending as a result.

A few dozen ralliers from the left-leaning Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center and the SEIU Local 668 union took over the Capitol rotunda Monday afternoon, and focused much of their dismay on GOP House Speaker Mike Turzai.

The budget is awaiting House action, and Turzai has the power to end his chamber's indefinite recess.

Though the Speaker was out of the office at the time, the protesters banged on his door and asked a secretary to relay their message.

"I have no assurances from anyone that we can fix this unless there's willingness on all sides to come to an agreement and compromise," said PBPC Director Marc Stier.

House members are deliberating how to best fill a $2 billion gap in the spending plan they passed in June. They say they won't agree to a plan already passed by the Senate.

State Treasurer Joe Torsella has said the situation is bad enough to warrant freezing spending in the near-future.

Stier said he's concerned about two spending areas in particular.

"You can't cut Medicaid without losing federal funds, you can't open the doors to the prisons," he said. "You can stop funding human services, you can cut funding to education. Those are the places that always get hurt, and that's what we're afraid of--they're going to get hurt again."

A spokesman for Governor Tom Wolf said the governor urges the House to take note of Torsella's warnings.

"[Wolf] urges the House to return and to complete and fully fund the budget that they overwhelmingly passed at the end of June," he said in a statement.

House GOP spokesman Steve Miskin called the protest "utterly silly," and said members are working hard on a compromise behind the scenes.

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Top state officials are warning that Pennsylvania's deficit-strapped government is rapidly approaching a more severe stage in its seven-week-old budget stalemate, one in which Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf may have to start deciding which bills to pay and which to postpone.

Taxes are still being collected and checks are being cut by the Pennsylvania Treasury under a nearly $32 billion budget bill that lawmakers approved June 30, the day before the current fiscal year began.

Pennsylvania's general fund is on track to be $1.6 billion dollars underwater by the middle of next month.

In the past, the state Treasury has extended lines of credit to help the state keep paying immediate expenses when funds bottom out.

But Treasurer Joe Torsella says that may no longer be fiscally prudent.

The cash balance would have already hit zero this month, if not for a short term, $750 million credit line from the Treasury. The state has to pay that back with interest next week. But the fund is expected to run dry yet again before the end of August.